Ben Hess The Winner In Arca Race At Pocono

A good word from the seat of his pants was all Ben Hess needed yesterday.

Starting 22nd in a field of 35 cars, the confident Mooreville, N.C., driver won the Champion Battery 150 at Pocono International Raceway.

The ARCA run was the second event of a three-race weekend, which will close with today's running of the Winston Cup Champion Spark Plug 500.

"There's that feeling that a racer gets after that last practice session ... the seat of the pants thing ... that message that everything just feels good. Everything we did got the car faster," Hess said after his first win of the year.

"You have to hang it out at (PIR), but you try to be as smooth as possible. It was just a good race; a good day," he said of his first Pocono victory after five top 10 finishes.

Starting far back in the field after missing the first round of qualifying -- the team was still building the eventual winning car -- Hess worked his way to the front with just eight laps to go getting by Frank Kimmell who eventually finished fourth.

Jeff McClure ended second and Tim Fedewa third.

"My biggest problem was that there were a lot of first time racers around here and I've seem that happens (crashes) going into the first turn and the tunnel turn. I wanted to run as hard as I could the first couple of laps, but then I settled down.

"Ben Hess is back," he announced.

Tim Bender, after a sixth-place start, won the Winnebago Sportsman 150 -- taking the point with just seven circuits left -- for his second straight sportsman victory. The race ended under yellow because of a late wreck.

Peters Gibbons was second and T.W. Taylor third.

More than half the 60-lap race -- 31 circuits -- was run under caution causing an average speed of just 97.472 mph for Bender's Chevrolet.

Bender fell deep in the pack after having to pit early with a flat tire following one of the numerous accidents. Eight yellow flags were pulled in all.

"We worked hard and we have never even been here before (at Pocono) ... never hardly seen this big track before, except on TV," said Bender who won at Charlotte last month.

"It's great to win two in a row in the series. We had a little bit of trouble getting the chassis working, but the crew did an excellent job of getting the car sorted out.

"We came (from Charlotte) with the wrong setup and changed it as we went along. We were picking up in practice ... but it was (mostly) me learning the track as I went," he said.